It’s been five months since Rolling Stone published the now infamous ‘UVA Rape Story’ — a detailed account of a horrific gang rape that allegedly occurred inside the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house. Since its publication in November, the subsequent fallout has been nothing short of disastrous for the accused fraternity, the University of Virginia, and for the reputation of Rolling Stone. The only deserving party to bear the brunt of this journalistic debacle, as it turns out, is Rolling Stone, so now the university and the fraternity are left to piece back together what’s left of their public perception.

Rolling Stone enlisted the help of Steve Coll, the dean of the Columbia School of Journalism, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, to conduct the investigation. In an article published on Sunday by the now soiled publication, the findings of Coll’s lengthy investigation were revealed. The entire article is very informative and very long (and I encourage you to read it), and what it basically says is this: Rolling Stone royally fucked up; there is no evidence to support Jackie’s claim against the members of Phi Psi.

Preceding the report was a note by Will Dana, Managing Editor of Rolling Stone. In his attempt to soften the blow of the findings, and to officially retract the initial story, he had this to say:

This report was painful reading, to me personally and to all of us at Rolling Stone. It is also, in its own way, a fascinating document ­— a piece of journalism, as Coll describes it, about a failure of journalism. With its publication, we are officially retracting ‘A Rape on Campus.’ We are also committing ourselves to a series of recommendations about journalistic practices that are spelled out in the report. We would like to apologize to our readers and to all of those who were damaged by our story and the ensuing fallout, including members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and UVA administrators and students. Sexual assault is a serious problem on college campuses, and it is important that rape victims feel comfortable stepping forward. It saddens us to think that their willingness to do so might be diminished by our failings.

The retraction is official, the apology is on paper, and now wallets are about to be opened.

the problem with suing people into bankruptcy is that once they file, they don’t have to make payments to the party receiving it. so honestly just sue them right before bankruptcy and making them fucking struggle. seems like a somewhat even way to get even.
unfortunately there is no way to earn respect back except for time.
Fuck you rolling stone.

Pick your targets boys (“Jackie”/UVa/Rolling Stone/ President Sullivan) use the money to throw a welcome back banger. As for you, Jackie, may your life be a downward spiral for your lies. You’re a certified sociopath.

Did you see the apology quote by the author, she literally mentions everyone but Phi Kappa Psi. Dumb people still have the attitude “O well there innocent this time, but there a frat, they have defiantly raped people before.” bullshit attitude

Are you an immigrant or something? Anyone who knows anything about the american judicial system knows this is a slam dunk civil suit with a multi-zero payout, the damages to the afflicted parties’ reputations was substantial and directly caused by rolling stone’s limp dick attempt at “journalism” (read: slander). At this point its not a question of if they’ll get paid, its a question of how much.

The problem here is that no actual people were named or accused in the article. It will be difficult to quantify the real and lasting damages suffered by specific members of the organization. Making a wealthy kid live in a dorm for a semester won’t exactly bring a jury to tears.

I think a class-action “pain and suffering” suit wouldn’t be otherworldly, though. The reporter acknowledges she reached out at the very least to the chapter’s president and to nationals in the follow up investigation made, and clearly they were harmed by the investigation. You are right though, in that it will be extremely difficult to quantify damages.

As much as I agree with you, she was probably advised not to do that as a way to contend she did any harm to them in case of a lawsuit. Admitting your actions caused damage to another party is akin to shooting yourself in the foot in the eyes of the law.

Also what really pissed me off, is how people (feminists) are saying that this story is going to discourage anyone who has been raped from coming forward. That kind of anti-logic makes no sense and could only be concocted by a group of people (feminists, again) who are attempting to deflect blame after being very wrong. Instead of just saying sorry to all and own it like an honorable human being, we see that they want to try to make people feel guilty for simply wanting to know why the published work was some fucked up borderline erotica news article. It’s as though they want us to just accept what is said and not have any due process to make sure that everything adds up and innocent people are not being accused. That kind of “obey without question” attitude is scary and history has not favored people who follow that kind of mindset. The real victims were the brothers of that fraternity because they were subjected to threats, vandalism, as well as having to deal with being called rapists and having to try to avoid being identified as a brother there. I seriously doubt that this will discourage people from coming forward, why, because there are ways to prove that a rape occurred and I think it sends a shiver down feminist’s spines when they think about how people are now going to be questioning feminists claims and not just lapping it up.

You know the story about the boy who cried wolf? When it actually happened no one believed him… Try being rapped then coming forward. Not only will people question if it actually happened, they will pass judgements on you. It’s not only a feminist thing. 1 out of 6 men have been sexually assaulted by the time they are 18. That means at least 15 guys in your fraternity have been victims themselves. How many of them come forward? It isn’t a male vs female issue. Nor is it a Greek vs GDI issue. Don’t play into the bullshit portrayal of fraternal ignorance that the media is working so hard to prove.

Notice the reporter apologized to every one (Rolling Stone readers, UVA, real rape victims) except for Phi Kappa Psi. She just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Her hatred for something she doesn’t understand is that strong. At the end of the day, her hatred for fraternity men is no different than any other bigotry. She hates people she doesn’t know based on ignorance and stereotypes. That’s bigotry.

So no one is going to point out that the details of the alleged rape that didn’t happen were published in this? Including a pledge allegedly raping the girl saying “don’t you want to be a brother?!” Obviously Rollin Stone didn’t learn its lesson, this stuff never happened but they wanted to give the impression that this stuff happens in the greek community. I would have at least expected TFM to point this out. Prefacing an investigation by stating, in detail, about an attack that never happened is just as bad as publishing it originally.

You’re exactly right. We are seeing this type of “journalism” way too much. It extends far beyond fraternities and the greek community as well. These “journalist” types so desperate to make biases, falsehoods, stereotypes, and what they’ve heard seem like reality or news. I hope Phi Kappa Psi and The University use this unfortunate course of events to show what happens to journalist and organizations that print lies or false unconfirmed information to fit a narrative they’ve already concluded is true and newsworthy.